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High-Speed Broadband Access Becomes Lifeblood for Modern Healthcare

More than ever before, innovations in healthcare technology are saving lives. A series of 2015 stories from around the nation highlight the importance of fast, affordable, reliable connectivity in using those technologies to serve patients in both urban and rural settings.

Broadband Speed and Medical Crises

The first story comes from Craig Settles, an expert on broadband access issues. In his line of work, Settles is constantly thinking about, talking about, and writing about the many virtues of broadband technology. But Settles explains that after recently suffering a stroke that required rapid medical attention, he gained a new perspective on the issue.

When someone suffers a stroke, they have three hours to get serious treatment or they often will not recover from its debilitating effects. I was lucky, but...while I worked through my recovery and rehab, a thought hit me: The process of my recovery would have been limited -- if not actually impossible -- had I been living in a small, rural or even urban low-income community without broadband.

Better Broadband, Better Medical Care in Rural West Virginia

The Charleston Gazette-Mail profiles the importance of broadband access at the St. George Medical Clinic in rural West Virginia. The clinic is wedged inside of a deep, wooded river valley, where geographic and topographic challenges interrupt access to reliable, high-speed broadband. In other words, the exact type of rural community Settles had in mind when he wrote about his frightening medical emergency.

But St. George Medical Clinic is different. With assistance from FCC funding, St. George recently laid a 12 miles of fiber optic line that delivers the hospital broadband access, essential to an increasing number of modern medical services. As the article explains:

Prior to installing the fiber optic line, Paul Wamsley, the clinic’s director, said his staff had to work with a DSL connection that only provided speeds of one to three megabits per second (Mbps). But with the new setup, the clinic’s staff and its customers are able to access a patient portal, where they can obtain their medical records, make payments, schedule appointments, request medication and ask for a referral — all online.

As the article also notes, the fiber broadband access at St. George Medical Clinic is the exception, not the rule, when it comes to broadband availability at rural medical facilities in West Virginia. Medical professionals say their patients miss out on access to new healthcare innovations that are not possible in facilities with persistently poor broadband access.

The 10 Gig Doctor

Feature stories appearing in both the Chattanooga Times Free Press and The Chattanoogan tell the story of Dr. Jim Busch, who in October became the first person in the world to get a 10 gigabit broadband per second connection at his home. With 10 gig connectivity, the radiologist and can quickly send and receive massive diagnostic files, enabling him to perform important medical work from home. Dr. Busch pays $299 per month through Chattanooga’s renowned EPB network.

Dr. Busch explains the value of the service to his work:

‘"In my field, fiber optic speeds save lives. Instead of waiting as much as a week or more to get results because radiologists would have to physically go to each location, our patients can get their results in hours or even minutes. When something is seriously wrong catching it as early as possible can be the difference between life and death."

Broadband and the Future of Medicine

Thanks to recent research and development, medical professionals are continuously improving their treatment of patients through the use of a wide variety of cutting edge devices and by employing Internet-based platforms to facilitate more efficient lines of communication. But these devices are only possible because of the high-speed broadband networks that are at the heart of modern digital data transmission demands.

Small and mid-sized communities with municipal networks often find hospitals and clinics are the first entities requesting better connectivity. In fact, more than a few networks were built when strong support from the local medical community tipped opinion in favor of a project.

The medical future is now for communities with access to high-speed broadband. Patients served by clinics with insufficient access to the technology should not have to wait simply because of where they live. Large corporate providers may find no financial justification for developing high-speed networks in sparsely populated rural areas but quality healthcare is a right that cannot be defined by geography. Local communities of every size and location deserve the authority to develop infrastructure to ensure that right.

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Imagine if Borders and Barnes & Noble, claiming it was killing their book sales, asked lawmakers to ban cities from building libraries. The legislators would laugh them out of the State House. Yet the same thing is happening right now with respect to Wi-Fi and other municipal broadband plans, and it is being taken all too seriously. In fact, although it is almost universally acknowledged that broadband access is essential to economic growth and education, phone and cable companies are lobbying furiously to prohibit municipalities from providing free or discounted broadband to their residents.